“You always want to be successful for an organization for a long time,” Gustavsson said. “I enjoyed living in Toronto, had a lot of good teammates. But I think both (sides) felt it was time to move on. For me it was time to find another challenge. For them it was probably good to move on, too.”

His time in Toronto was bittersweet.

“It was my first few years over here, so it was a lot of learning,” said Gustavsson, who signed a two-year, $3 million deal with Detroit on July 1, 2012.

“We didn’t make the playoffs; that was a disappointment. For myself, right away I got a chance to play a lot of games, get some experience. That was really good for me.

“I had some good stretches and not so good stretches. It was a learning period for me.”

Not all players consider playing in Toronto to be fun. Gustavsson didn’t mind the intense media scrutiny, though.

“I think it’s even tougher for Canadians who have families and kids,” Gustavsson said. “So much more to think about. For me, coming over from Sweden, I put a lot of pressure on myself, so I didn’t feel any extra pressure.

“Maybe you’d feel it if you read everything that was said about you, watched hockey on TV, which was on 24/7 there. But I like to do other stuff when I’m not playing hockey. The only difference I feel is, when you do an interview, here you have five (media) guys, there you had 25 guys.”

After an injury-plagued 2013 season, Gustavsson stepped up during Jimmy Howard’s struggles in November and will see more action with Howard (sprained) not slated to return until Dec. 30 or later.

“Gus has been really good for us; he’s had very few off-nights or average nights, to say the least,” coach Mike Babcock said. “He’s been real competitive. His save percentage is good, he’s gotten confidence, he gives our team confidence. He’s done an excellent job for us.”